And at the end of a long day popping to that very family friendly restaurant … Rocky Mountain Flatbread … where I can enjoy my glass of White Bear wine & a farmers market pizza and the kids can order the fav … chicken noodle soup, mac and cheese and a mozza pizza with mango!

Share what your favorite list of summer things to do is before visiting Rocky Mountain Flatbread.

The Flatbread Team is working with 90 kids at Kid Safe to convert their old tee shirts into library bags – they can also be used for shopping bags. The project is fun, quick, easy & stops millions of plastic bags ending up in our land fills and oceans – phew!

Tools and Materials

An old cotton T-shirt

Pins

Sewing machine

Medium-size bowl

Water-erasable marking pen

Scissors

T-Shirt Bag How-To

1. Turn T-shirt inside out and pin bottom of the T-shirt along the hem. Using a sewing machine, sew bottom of T-shirt closed. Flip shirt right side out and lay flat on table, making sure all seams are lined up.

2. Place medium-size bowl about half-way over the neck hole. Using a water-erasable marking pen, trace along the edge of the bowl. Cut along the outline, making sure to go through the front and back sides of the shirt, in order to create an opening for the bag that’s larger than what the neck hole allows.

3. Line up the hems on the front and back side of the sleeve and cut, making sure to go through both sides of the shirt. Repeat on the other sleeve.

Garlic scapes have arrived fresh from Kitsilano Farms in our restaurant. And Doug our Field Chef created the most delicious Spinach & Garlic Scape Pesto which I drizzled on my Basil Bocconcini Flatbread Pizza for lunch. An amazing taste! Not too garlicy and so easy to make!

Charred Spot Prawns

Place prawns in a bowl. Add paprika, toss and coat evenly. Place large frying pan (preferably cast iron) on medium high heat. Add prawns and stir-fry for four minutes. Remove from heat, place prawns in a bowl. Toss with lemon zest and parsley.

Arrange prawns evenly among 4 plates, sprinkle with more parsley if desired.

Growing Food With Sharon Hanna:

Taking a trip out to West Creek Farms in search of good, high quality organic soil

Last spring I wanted to take my Gaia ‘Growing Food In the City’ program class somewhere to see how soil was “made.” There seemed to be a real problem finding a source of organic soil for people to grow food—even amongst all kinds of people involved in programs all over the Lower Mainland. It struck me as odd that you can buy 50 million different kinds of useless things every time you turn around, but sourcing good soil seemed a mystery, even for professionals.

Years back when I worked with Odessa Bromley at her nursery in Southlands, we used a beautiful, high-quality gritty potting mix to pot up the field-grown perennials. Turns out it had come from West Creek—that’s all I knew, so I gave the place a call.

West Creek Farms in Fort Langley

So I took my class out to Fort Langley to check out West Creek Farms, which involved a beautiful drive out in the country on a sunny Sunday in May. About 30 of us showed up for a tour, led by Frederick Munn, co-owner of the company.

Those of us in love with soil and soil amendments were led swooning around the huge area, smelling the mile-high piles of bark mulch being aerated with pipes—like aged tobacco or fine Cabernet—as well as big cargo containers of organic rice hulls and other stuff in various stages of mellowing.

The experiment: Which soil mix for what veggie

West Creek Farms

Frederick and I struck up a soil-based friendship and began a conversation about trialing various soil mixes to see which grew what veggie best. For example, I’ve always had a hard time growing beets at home—so we’re going to try beets in all the mixes to see which one yields the best.

Truck driver Rob King, a jack of all trades, whipped up six raised beds, 4 feet by 12 feet. We thought we’d try three “organic” and three “conventional” types of soil mixes, and garlic seed was planted in mid-October.

Operations manager Tommy Floyd got too way enthusiastic—carried away even—and arranged to do 18 more beds for 24 in total! So there’s lots of room for growing food this year. Looks like West Creek will have a demonstration garden ready for viewing sometime this summer… Right, Frederick?

The aisles between, I said to Frederick, were way too wide: “such a waste in all that full sun.” So “we” have decided to plant lots of pumpkins and squash in those wide swaths, allowing them to run all over the place and using the lasagna garden method of building up an instant garden. It will be no problem getting the organic material for all the layers.

Frederick attended the workshop I had the pleasure of leading for landscapers last Friday, put on by the BCLNA. Not having been a grower of food up until this point, Frederick has a steep learning curve ahead of him but I think he’s up to it.

“I am very excited to launch this project as it provides an opportunity to use our experiences, skills and creativity and at the same time gain additional knowledge about soils,” he says. “Working with Sharon has been a rewarding experience and I look forward to making a contribution to the further development of organics!”

‘Frederick’s Organic Concoction’ soil mix recipe

Here’s the recipe for “Frederick’s Organic Concoction,” one of the three being trialed: